Guyana’s pace of oil and gas production is unprecedented – Oil and Gas advisor
─ every decision made, thus far, has been evidenced based
DPI, Guyana, Sunday, January 13, 2019
Oil and Gas Adviser at the Department of Energy, Matthew Wilks has put to rest questions regarding the pace of which the Oil and Gas Sector is moving.
During an interactive session on Guyana’s Oil and Gas Sector held at the Umana Yana, Kingston, Wilks made it clear that “the pace of development in Guyana is incredibly fast… The pace of exploration discovery moving forward to production is unprecedented worldwide, so everyone is in a catchup mode”.
Questions arose during the event which saw a huge turnout of youths.
The narrative was seconded by Head of the Department of Energy, Dr. Mark Bynoe who pointed out that what is taking place with Guyana’s oil and gas sector is the fastest it has ever been in the world.
“Guyana is taking five years from exploration to production, which has never happened before. What does that tell us? We have to be turbocharged. We have to be enhancing our efforts even greater, we do not have the luxury of time on our side” he explained.
Using Ghana as an example, Dr. Bynoe further emphasized that, “when they started the Jubilee field, even though they had much longer, never had a local content policy, never had a petroleum commission in place. The point is, it may look slothful to some and it may seem that all your ducks are not lined up, but trust me, we are doing our best to get there.”
To emphasise, Dr. Bynoe stressed that due to the magnitude of the sector, every decision made by the department has to be evidence-based. “In other words, we cannot afford to get this wrong. We cannot afford to just do what some people may call a rum shop gaff. We cannot be making decisions at the pub. We have to ensure that whatever we are advising on, because of the magnitude of this particular sector, it is well thought out, it is well reasoned” he stated.
Oil production in Guyana is set to commence by March 2020 and will bring in an initial annual revenue of US$300M.
By: Isaiah Braithwaite.
Images: Giovanie Gajie.